


Baking

by sadieHD



Series: Rossi's Camera Roll [4]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Babysitting, Baking, Crack, Domestic Fluff, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-16
Updated: 2017-09-16
Packaged: 2018-12-30 08:00:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12104265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sadieHD/pseuds/sadieHD
Summary: Anonymous: Hey, you know the "put gerard back" vine? You know the cookie with the suit? Could you write something based on that?





	Baking

**Author's Note:**

> [here's the reference pic](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lIxbJkRMxQ) (the link is a video)

“We need more red!” Henry demanded from inside the grocery cart, point accusingly at the shelf’s contents. Jack nodded solemnly in agreement, grabbing the tubes of icing with stoic precision that could only be learned after seven years of mimicking the serious movements of his father. 

Auntie Penelope was more than happy to take care of Jack and Henry. Hotch and JJ were nearly back from a prison interview in a neighboring state, so the bubbly tech analyst had leapt at the chance to spoil her two favorite boys. Her kitchen had been woefully unprepared for the pair’s monstrous appetites, and she’d taken them to the store to rectify the truly tragic circumstances. Their cart had been so far filled with various berries, baby carrots, a couple apples, a frozen pizza, and the necessary ingredients for sugar cookies. Plus decorations.

“Alrighty, boys, do we need anything else?”

The pair considered for a moment. “Ice cream,” Jack stated. 

“Lead the way,” Penelope said. Jack raised his arm and charged forward dramatically, with Penelope pushing Henry in the grocery cart not too far behind. Henry was excitedly peering through plastic, giggling with the happy innocence of a child. 

Penelope missed this. The constant state of tumultuous joy was contagious, brightening her mood instanty and automatically, no matter how stressful the situation. The children had been through so much, especially young Jack, but their high spirits and resilience against the tragedies they’d suffered was beyond inspiring. How could she not spoil them? 

It’s not like they demanded much anyway. Beyond the occasional snack, the children were terribly low-maintnence, to the point where Jack might outright refuse sweets before a proper meal or at least a healthy snack. Imagine! A seven year old turning down sweets! Penelope was appalled. 

Nonetheless, she was going to make sure they had fun. 

That’s why they loved her so much, after all.

 

-

 

Penelope didn’t know what else she expected when asking what kind of cookies they wanted to make. She wasn’t a profiler, but she was surrounded by profilers every day, and it really shouldn’t have been as much of an intuitive leap.

“Superheroes!” Henry giggling with Jack nodding vigorously in the background. 

“Alrighty then, my mighty warriors!” Penelope rolled up her sleeves with a theatrical flourish. “It’s time to make cookies!” 

Penelope Garcia had baked cookies from scratch before. She’d even baked cookies from scratch with children before. But she’d never experienced such a disorienting combination of careful craftsmenship and chaotic creativity. She could’ve sworn if she had written a code to measure out the exact amount of flour, it would’ve been outdone easily by Jack’s steady hands and Henry’s perfectionist streak. If she wasn’t so awestruck she would have laughed at their parent’s traits shining through so clearly in their respective children. Jack delicately emptied the measuring cup into the mixing bowl after Henry had successfully moved the half dozen grains preventing perfection. Satisfied with the proportions, they both looked to their aunt with nearly identical doe-eyes and enchanting smiles.

She couldn’t help but grin back. 

Lulled into false security by their adorableness, Penelope hardly registered what she was doing when she handed over the mixer. In an electric whirr, the air suddenly thickened with flour and sugar and whatever else they’d put in. The boys giggled giddely at the chaos that they reined on the kitchen, oblivious to Penelope’s look of shock as seemingly every surface became cakes in white powder. 

She burst into laughter at the boys’ dirty faces before merrily adding the wet ingredients. It wouldn’t be long before they got the cookies in the oven. …But maybe it’d take a while to get the kitchen clean again.

 

-

 

We’re finally in D.C. -AH

Are the boys in bed yet? –AH

Penelope barely heard the ding of the message above the roar of the two children’s playing. She fumbled for the phone, glancing to make sure whatever superhero antics they were participating in kept them far away from where the cookies were on the cooling rack. 

She winced as she saw the message.

Not quite yet. They’re excited for you to come home. –PG

Hotch undoubtedly saw through her vague reply, but it’s not like he could do anything about it. And when Jack and Henry ran up to her, clinging to her legs, she found she didn’t care anyway. 

“Are they ready yet?” Jack asked impatiently. 

“Well, why don’t we go see?” Penelope paused. “I need my legs back, please.” 

“No, thank you,” Henry politely refused, wrapping his limbs even more tightly. 

Penelope hefted her feet forward, dragging the mutated growths on her legs until she made it to the counter, only partially feiging fatigue. She tapped the cookies lightly—they seemed cool enough for icing. She beamed down on them. “They’re ready! Go get the decorations!”

Jack and Henry had bolted to the pantry before she’d even finished her sentence. They returned with armfuls of post-baking goodies and looked up expectantly at ther aunt. “Well, go ahead!” she encouraged. “Go crazy!”

Oh, they did. Henry was making webbing designs and red blobs that were presumably Spider-man, but she wasn’t about to insult him by clarifying. Meanwhile, Jack was working very intently on his own creation.

Penelope laughed out loud when she saw it, nearly coming to tears. Well, they did say they wanted to do superheroes. She supposed she should’ve known Jack would’ve wanted to make a cookie of his favorite superhero. The figure in a jagged suit was certainly striking, and no doubt Rossi would enjoy the recreation of Hotch, not to mention the Unit Chief himself. No matter the scolding she would get for keeping those boys up so late, it was all worth it to be able to see Hotch’s expression as he sees his son’s artistic rendition.


End file.
